Mastodon complete discography review + Killer be Killed+Fiend Without a Face+Giraffe Tongue Orchestra+Gone is Gone

Mastodon

Remission 2002

Genre: Sludge Metal, Progressive Metal.

I've been a fan of this band for a long time and to my surprise I have never listened to this album up until today (26/04/2016), and wow  these guys are already onto something on their first album, being much heavier than the later releases you can already so of the signature style of guitar playing by Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher, which is fascinating to hear how good they are. Bran Dailor's drums have a very interesting flowing type of style ( I don't know how to explain I'm not a drummer), very different from normal heavy drummers, he sounds like he's all over the place on the drums but never going overboard. Troy Sanders plays the bass and does the vocals, and he sounds like one scary mother F'er, but one must note that the band doesn't use multiple singers yet.

Song are somewhat complicated and progy, but super heavy and most of the album is relentless and Mother Puncher is the best track off this album.

Overall: 58

Leviathan (2004)

Sludge Metal, Prog Metal

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You have an interesting progression in the bands capacity of make intriguing super heavy songs. Vocally you have Brent Hinds contributing with the vocal with Troy Sanders on a couple of tracks, creating an interesting dynamic between them, plus you have to guest vocalist Scott Kelly from Neurosis and Neil Fallon from Clutch. On an instrumental level, the guitars just keep upping their game, going deeper into their sophisticated style of playing, with sick  heavy riffs all over the place and every once in a while they pump out a bluesy old school solo. Brann has some complex drums on this album, but I love his atypical almost straight forward attack on Blood and Thunder.

It crazy hear these guys make some pretty complex heavy music,  but it's surprisingly  accessible to any metal head or hard rockers. This album is good from front to back, but I must say that Blood and Thunder is one of the best opening tracks ever.

Overall: 59.6

Blood Mountain (2006)

Genre: Sludge Metal, Prog Metal, Stoner Metal

Mastodon still keeps on growing in their musical journey, going deeper into sophisticated metal style and really experimenting with certain aspects of their songs, but the track that steals the show, that really demonstrates how much  these guys have grown as musicians is "Sleeping Giant" wow, the band adds a Tool's  esoteric and epic sound to their composition, just slowing things down taking their time with the song letting it grow on its own, telling a story, something that we will see in their next and best album Crack the Skye.  

I must add there seems to be more bass playing on this album, it possible it's just higher in the mix.  And there are three guest vocalist on this album Josh Homme from Queen of the Stone Age, Cedric Bixler Zavala from Mars Volta and At the Drive In and finally

Overall: 58.6



Crack in the Skye (2009)
Genre: Prog Metal, Stoner Rock, Sludge Metal

So today I bring you guys my  sad story of the first time a listened to the  incredible album. You see I started to blast this production on my computer while I was putting my final touches to my Thesis, and I was so  impressed  I jacked up the volume even more, so when It finished I went outside for a breath of fresh air to find the police at my neighbor's apartment the dude had committed suicide, and the cops had been pounding on my door to question me on what had happened, but since the music was so loud I didn't hear them. The things is that the man that killed himself, who was a really nice dude, had a affair with his wife's sister and her husband tried to killer with their children setting their house on fire, so my neighbor out of guilt killed himself drinking acid, so that my messed up story about the first time I listen to this album.

                                       

Vocals and Lyric: It a dark and esoteric toolish concept album, and you have the addition that not only Sanders and Hinds sing but also Dailor the drummer actually has vocals on two tracks giving a Queen of the Stine Age feel to those songs. 12

Instrumentation:  

Guitar: Hinds and Killiher are probably the best guitar duo out their they constantly up their game and consolidate their style on each album, and Hind's  blues inflicted solos a stoning.

Bass: Sander has some interesting bass  lines and uses some interesting pedal effects.   

Drums: Dailor as usual dose a fantastic job.

Keys and Mellotron: Rich Morris adds these two instruments to the songs giving an old school 70's proggy feel to the album. 8

Melody and/or Structure: The songs are old school have never long with many parts, each song is a story so they take their time to tell them they don't rush anything,  and this album is masterful in that aspect. 12

Sound, Production and Feeling: Album sound s great  and its well recorded, Brendan O'Brien did a good, especial adding effects that give the band that old school vintage feel. 9

Songs: Track list is perfect, and Oblivion won me over  making me a Mastodon fanatic .12

The Bad:

Originality: This album is really interesting  because I feel that many of my musician friends that are not metal heads really started to dig these guys, and when a band can break though genres without compromising is no easy task.  12

Overall: 65

Fiend Without a Face

Brent Hinds Presents: Fiend With Out a Face  (2011)

Genre: Psychedelic Rockabilly, Surfer Rock

Pretty basic sounding and lowfy album, it a trip into Brent love for rockabilly, Surfer rock and the bizarre in general, one can appreciate his interesting guitar playing style. It would be cool if he did a collaboration with John 5 another rockabilly addict. 

Overall: 37.75

 

The Hunter (2011) + Once More Around the Sun (2014)

Genre: Prog Metal, Sludge Metal, Stoner Rock, Alternative Rock

Both of these album you can observe a transition  in band  style starting to focus more on 70's styled hard rock and stoner rock, both being not as heavy but putting out a super solid albums, with Once More Around the Sun being the better of the two being more focused and having better material, but is an obvious progression from Hunter. Vocally is where the band grows the most, all four members actually take a shot at singing and are progressively evolving a type of Beatle  dynamic in the band, depending on who sings the song the musical style changes a little bit, but this is more obvious on Once More Around the Sun.

The Songs on both productions are very old school guitar driven rockers you really start to anticipate the solos that are ear candy, with the Guitar solo on  Halloween off Once More around the Sun, the best solo in their whole catalog and one of my all-time favorites. 

Overall: Hunter: 57.6 OMAS: 63.8

Killer be Killed

Killer be Killed (2014)

Genre: Sludge Metal, Groove Metal

Here we have the first and only album from the super group Killer be Killed with Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plane), Max Cavalera (Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy, ex-Sepultura and ex-Nailbomb), Troy Sanders (Mastodon) and David Elitch (The Mars Volta and Antemasque). These guys have put out a pretty straight forward but extremely effective metal album that is highly recommendable for people getting into the heavier side of the genre.

Vocals and Lyrics: Greg, Max, and Troy really do a good job together each one taking turns on each track, they play off each other very well.  10

Instrumentation:  Instrumentally the band sounds great, good chemistry between them it seems as they have been playing for ages with each other.   7.5

Melody and/or Structure: Simple but direct super heavy songs, with good choruses and Greg and Troy  vocally add a good dose of melody to each song.  8

Sound, Production and Feeling: Album sounds great, the band is just rocking  out and letting a lot of steam, and we the listeners just hitch along for the ride. 8.5 

Songs: Surprisingly good songs for a super band, the album is super solid from front to back. 11

Originality: This album is a breath of fresh air in the stagnant world of heavy metal and thanks to it I discovered The Dillinger Escape Plan that left me in total in shock in how good these guys are the first time I listen to them. Also, Max should reevaluate the crap his doing lately with Soulfly 10 

Overall: 55

Giraffe Tongue Orchestra

Broken Lines (2016)

Genre: Alternative Metal, Alternative Rock, Indie Rock

So finally I got around to the review this very interesting album that goes in a very different direction  that  I thought this super group would go, instead of being the heaviest most extreme thing ever it dive into alternative rock with a touch of metal and even having a popish flare at moments, not giving a F, jajaja, they basically just make engaging music in any of its forms.

Now who are the members of this super group? First we got Alice in Chains, William DuVall's whose vocal delivery really surprised me it's very different from what he does in Chains, he stretches his legs on this album shown off his whole vocal pallet, taking advantage that he's not restrained by the somber mood of Alice's stuff (Note I'm not fan of Alice in Chains, even though they are a fantastic band they  never have been my cup of tea).

Now the guitar work on this album has been a bit of a letdown I was expecting much more having two technical interesting players like Ben Weinman from The  Dillinger Escape Plan and Brent Hinds from Mastodon, their playing is great and enjoyable, but I thought they would work on more complex stuff. What did surprise me was bass player Pete Griffin from Deathklok  his playing is great he makes some good fills and arrangements. On the Drum we have Thomas Pridgen from Mars Volta, brings that band intensity and energy when needed. And I must add the band actually uses a horn section at moments and some keys here and there, adding a lot of color to the songs they are in, probably scaring the hell out of hard core metal heads.

The Songs have a basic pop structure with a couple of surprises, now interesting  thing about this band is their use of melody, I can't put my finger on it, but they try some odd stuff. Also the musical styles they throw into the mix is pretty eclectic and they mix it up in a way that they have they own thing going on, it leaves you scratching your head the first time you listen to it but it grows on you pretty fast. 

Even though the band tries and mixes many musical styles the album is very focused and the track list is very solid, no fillers on this album, so I really recommend this album or at least give it a chance to grow on you. 

 

Overall: 55

Gone is Gone

Ecolocation  (2017)

Genre:  Stoner Rock, Hard Rock, Alternative Rock

This is my favorite album of this year with Troy Sanders on bass and vocals from Mastodon collaborating with Troy Van Leeuwen  on guitar from the Queens of the Stone Age and A Perfect Circle, Tony Hajjar on drums from At the Drive In and Sparta and finally last but not least Mike Zarin on guitars and keys. The albums feel like Mastodon gone full on stoner, with a healthy dose of experimentation. The mood is key on this album it shifts from epic heavy with monstrous but simple riffs, to tranquil and still, from dark and ominous to full on rock. The songs are well written and the production sounds just perfect, there are a couple holy shit this is perfect moments, the songs feel like they are perfectly matured, something that isn't common in these super groups, that rush out albums and only half of it is any good.

Overall: 57.3

Mastodon

 

Emperor of Sand  (2017)

Genre:  Alternative Rock/Metal, Prog Rock

Even though the album is pretty solid with fantastic material, it's a letdown the because they play it too safe, they  take no risks.  Now don't get me wrong, they are getting better at writing straight forward heavy rock songs, with some great vocal work, a natural progression from previous albums, but their experimental nature is just not there, something that was a big appeal to me.

Overall: 56.1